Stander Family Christmas Party

This Sunday night we braved the cold and the fog to travel to downtown Salt Lake for the Stander Family Christmas party!  For those of you who don't know, the Stander is Jeannette's (Chase's mom) maiden name.  We got to have the party in the conference room at American Towers, and it was so fun!  The food, the company, and the activities were a blast.

 The oldest and youngest in the group, Grandpa Stander and Mckay enjoyed a nice long talk with one another.

 We enjoyed hearing the nativity story, as narrated by several family members.  The real star of the show, however, were the puppeteers. . .

 Cole was the star of the show (I terrible pun, I know, but I couldn't resist)

 Cody checking out the shepherd puppet he was in charge of.

 Jax and Clayton admiring the Christmas tree.  I wish I could've gotten a better picture, but my camera takes a few seconds to take a shot.  I wanted to capture Jaxton in the act of taking ornaments off, and Clayton putting them back on.  Eventually, I think Clayton realized he was fighting a losing battle:)

Mckay was an angel because he has discovered that he likes a bottle!  Hooray!  My life has just become so much easier!
All in all, it was a great night.  Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make it so!

Thanksgiving fun

This year Chase, Mckay, and I took the much anticipated trek to Broomfield, Colorado, to spend Thanksgiving with my Anderson side of the family.  I have not been to Broomfield for 5 years, so I was really looking forward to going back.
We left on Tuesday, just ahead of what was supposed to be that horrible storm, and had a very peaceful trip to Broomfield.

Mckay was an angel the entire trip down, sleeping almost the whole way . . . we later found out it was because he was sick.  Don't worry, he got better about 24 hours later.
On Wednesday we went to the Harry Potter movie, and Chase played basketball with the boys for about 4 hours while I lounged around, talked, and hung out with the family.

Thursday, we began the very cold holiday by either watching or participating in the Anderson Turkey Bowl!  The boys played or about 2 ours. . . the girls and the kids watched for about 2 minutes before deciding that sitting in 10 degree weather with the wind blowing was insane.
Later that day we went to the church and there we had a great dinner.  After the dinner, we cleared away the tables and played lightning (or knockout, or speed, or whatever it is you call it).

And, of course, we had the traditional pie eating contest.  Neither Chase nor I came close to winning, but we managed to get the stuff all over our face and it made for a good picture:)

Friday we went to Disney's new movie Tangled (which I loved and even Chase loved . . . go see it if you haven't!), and spent time in the Manwaring's hot tub.  Mckay loooovvved the water, and splashed everyone, including himself.  And since Friday was our anniversary (2 years and counting!), Chase and I  got a babysitter, and drove to Boulder to look at the CU campus up there.  Chase might go there for grad school, and we wanted to check it out.  It was a beautiful campus, and it had a great street nearby called Pearl Street, where you could shop and dine.  For anyone going that way, I highly recommend it.  It was a wonderful, romantic evening.

Saturday, the rest of my family went back to Payson to avoid Sunday's storm, but Chase and I stayed because there was a certain U of U vs. BYU game that had to be watched.  This pic doesn't actually come from that day, but I thought I would show it just in case anyone wasn't aware of who Chase cheered for.  And for those of you who are BYU fans, I had Mckay dressed in red AND blue, and it will probably stay that way until he's old enough to pick a side:)
After the game, we drove to Green River, arriving there at about 10:00 p.m., and stayed the night in my Uncle Stephen and Aunt Theresa's house.  The next morning, we braved the storms and finished the trek home.  It was a fun-filled week full of relaxing, family time, good food, and good memories.
And now . . . . ON TO CHRISTMAS!!